1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cutting apparatus having a cutting blade for cutting a workpiece such as a semiconductor wafer.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a semiconductor device fabrication process, a plurality of crossing division lines called streets are formed on the front side of a substantially disk-shaped semiconductor wafer to thereby partition a plurality of regions where a plurality of devices such as ICs and LSIs are respectively formed. The semiconductor wafer thus having the plural devices is cut along the streets by using a cutting apparatus to thereby divide the regions where the devices are formed from each other, thereby obtaining the individual semiconductor devices as chips.
The cutting apparatus for cutting the semiconductor wafer as a workpiece along the streets includes workpiece holding means for holding the workpiece, cutting means having a rotatable cutting blade for cutting the workpiece held by the workpiece holding means, and feeding means for relatively moving the workpiece holding means and the cutting means in a feeding direction. The cutting means includes a spindle housing, a spindle rotatably supported to the spindle housing, a mounter fixed to the front end of the spindle, the mounter having a boss portion adapted to be inserted through a central opening of the cutting blade, and a fixing flange having an internal screw thread adapted to threadedly engage with an external screw thread formed on an end portion of the boss portion of the mounter. In mounting the cutting blade to the spindle, the boss portion of the mounter is first inserted through the central opening of the cutting blade, and the internal screw thread of the fixing flange is next threadedly engaged with the external screw thread of the boss portion of the mounter, thereby fixing the cutting blade between the mounter and the fixing flange (see Japanese Patent Laid-open No. Hei 11-33907, for example).